Soap holder and adjustable loop



May 17, 1966 F. E RNEST 3,251,571

-' Q SOAP HOLDER AND ADJUSTABLE LOOP Filed May 20, 1963 INVENTOR.

Q/VEST United States Patent SOAP HOLDER AND ADJUSTABLE LOOP Fred Ernest,5468 Alvern Circle, Los Angeles 45, Calif. Filed May 20, 1963, Ser. No.281,590 1 Claim. (Cl. 248-359) This invention pertains to means forfastening a cord to a bar of soap so that the cord and soap may hangfrom a fixture or from the neck of the user when not actually being usedfor lathering, and it relates also to a cord and fastening means havingother analogous uses.

When showering, the cake of soap frequently slips from the hands of thebather to the floor of the tub or shower stall, requiring that he stoopover to' pick it up. If he is not wearing a bathing cap, this may resultin his getting his'hair wet when he wants to keep it dry. Furthermore,it is a convenience not to have to place the soap in a soap dish if thebather wants to use both hands for the shower controls or perhaps onehand on a shower control while holding a sponge or wash cloth in theother.

Various means have been proposed in the past for attaching a cord to abar of soap. If the cord is embedded in the soap, even when the end ofthe cord is knotted, the. cord often pulls out due. to the softening ofthe soap under action of the moisture that runs down the cord.

One object of the present invention is to provide means whereby the cordmay be attached to the soap without having to be embedded therein.

A further object is to provide means whereby the connection between thecord and the soap may be adjusted to hold the soap moresecurely as itgradually wears away during use.

An additional object is to provide a device that may be slipped overboth ends of the cord after an intermediate portion of the cord has beenlooped around the soap in a manner hereinafter to be described, thedevice then acting, when moved against the bar of soap, to tighten itsgrip therearound.

Still another object is to provide a peripheral groove or series ofperipheral grooves in the soap so that the looped cord will be held inplace and so that the groove originally formed will act as a guidewhereby the cord itself will deepen the groove as his tightened aroundthe soap to compensate for the portions that have been used or dissolvedaway from the original groove. The action of the slightly moving cord inthe groove is much like the action of a river stream in deepeningitschannel.

In accordance with these objectives, another object is to provide aconfiguration and arrangement for the groove or grooves to make certainthat the bar of soap is firmly held and that the groove will deepen inuse in the manner hereinbefore described.

This invention possesses many other advantages, and has other objectswhich may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of oneembodiment of the invention. For this purpose, there is shown a form inthe drawing accompanying and forming a part of the presentspecification, together with a modification in one portion of theembodiment. This form will now be described in detail, illustrating thegeneral principles of the invention; but it is to be understood thatthis detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, sincethe scope of this invention is best defined by the appended 3,251,571Patented May 17, 1966 FIG. 4 is a cut-away view of a device thattightens the cord around the soap, showing a suitable formation of thehole that passes through the tightening device;

FIG. 5 is 'a section taken substantially on line 55 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 shows the arrangement of the cord with respect to itself when itis looped twice around the bar of soap;

FIG. 7 shows a modification in which the groove for guiding the cordextends all around the bar; and

FIG. 8 is a side View of the bar of soap shown in FIG. 7. 3

Although the cord that attaches to the soap may be hung from a hook orother projection, the use of my invention is illustrated by showing thecord placed ove the head of the bather.

While it is essential to the use of my invention that two adjacentportions of the cord pass through the tightening device 2, it is notessential that the cord be endless in order that it may be looped overthe bathers head or over such hook as may be provided, perhaps on thewall of the shower, for hanging the soap; for example, a knot may betied in the cord at position 3 indicated in FIGS.

1 and 4 and an independent loop formed on the other end of the cord.

In the presently preferred embodiment of my invention, the bar of soap 1is provided at each of its corners with a recess 4, these recesses alllying in essentially the same plane between the two faces of the bar.Each of the four recesses extends at an angle substantially as shown inFIG. 2.

The tightening device or cramp 2, in the presently preferred embodiment,is provided with an opening 7 therethrough which tapers from theupper-to the lower end when the cramp is disposed in the position inwhich it is used, as shown in FIG. 4. Preferably, the edges of both theupper and lower openings to this tapered hole are radiused or chamfered,as shown in FIG. 4, with the upper radius 8 being longer than the lowerchamfer 9.

In assembling the cord and cramp, both ends of the cord may be insertedthrough the smaller end of the hole so that there will be a loop in theportions of the cord below the cramp when these parts are disposed asshown in FIGS. 1 and 2; but the threading is easier if the loop isformed by first inserting one endof the cord through the larger end ofthe hole, then pulling enough of the cord through the smaller end toform the loop, and final- 1y threading the cord back through the hole sothat it will be doubled within the cramp. Because of the restrictedspace available between the side of the hole and the portion of the cordalready passing through the cramp, it is advisable to pull on the partof the cord adjacent the larger end of the hole while reinserting thecord from the small end, as the movement of the cord already passingthrough the cramp tends to entrain the reinserted end with it.

The loop may then be placed in the groove or grooves around the soap.When the cramp is pushed down over the two sides of the cords 6 and 6'toward the soap, as shown in FIG. 2, the tension of the two portions ofthe cord at right angles to the hole at positions 5 and 5 tend to pressthe adjoining portions of the cord together within the hole thustightening the cramp. As a consequence, the tension on the cord does notcause the cramp to back ofi; but if the cramp is purposely pushed awayfrom the soap in order to release the bar, the larger end of the holepermits the cramp to slide easily over the cord.

If the cord is wrapped twice around the bar in the manner'indi'cated inFIG. 6, the bar is even more firmly held in position than When the cordmakes only one convolution about the bar. This is because a given degreeof loosening of the cord around the soap requires the same amount ofcord to move past a given point in each of the two convolutions, and asa consequence twice as much cord must move through the cramp when thecord is wrapped around the soap twice, as indicated in FIG. 6, than whenit is wrapped around only once as shown in FIG. 2. This action is verymuch the same as that which takes place when a pulley is attached to aload that is lifted by means of a cord fixed at one end, then passedaround a pulley, and raised from the other end, the force required beingonly half as much as would be needed if the weight were being lifteddirectly by a cord attached to the weight itself.

It will be clear that my cramp 2 with the cord arranged either as inFIG. 2 or FIG. 6 may be used for tying bundles together, such as bundlesof sticks or tubes, or stacks of books.

In FIG. 7, the bar or cake 11 has an annular groove all around the bar.The cord of course functions in this annular groove the same as in thediscontinuous groove arrangement shown in FIG. 2. Various othermodificati-ons may of course be made in the guiding means for the cordaround the bar of soap.

.Modifications may likewise be made in the cramp.

The cramp and cord may also be used for binding various articlestogether, such as books or bars or sticks, in which case the cord may bewrapped around them either once or twice, depending upon the degree ofsecurity desired.

Various other changes in the structure and manner of using the inventionare possible, and substitutions, rearrangements and transpositions mayof course be made Without departing from the broad spirit of myinvention as succinctly set forth in the appended claim.

The inventor claims:

A combination comprising: a cake of cleaning compound having peripheralgroove means therein for receiving a cord; an endless flexible cord; acramping member slidably mounted on the cord and dividing the cord intotwo contiguous loops, one of the loops extending circumferentially aboutthe cake and seated in said groove means; said cramping member beingoperative to cinch the cord around the loop; said cake beingsubstantially uniformly water soluble so that as the cake is used, the

groove means are renewed as the cramping member is repeatedy tightenedabout the cake.

MORRIS KAPLAN, Primary Examiner.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, RICHARD NEVIUS,

Examiners.

PHILIP ARVIDSON, Assistant Examiner.

